Add a new page

The Town of Horseshoe Harbor! A sleepy little burg where absolutely nothing can go wrong.

Unless you want to talk about the distillery catching fire.

Or perhaps you want to talk about Jellybean looking at the schedule for the day and realizing that there were three fewer clouds handy around town than the weather plan called for. Two were easily garnered from over Wintersong Forest, but for the third? For the third he wound up flying out into the mountains. And into a tree, dropping a beehive on himself. Thereby attracting the attention of a marginally-unseasonal bear who smelled the delicious honey. And later some buzzards, who smelled a delicious honey-coated pony.

What I'm getting at is that it's not his fault that he was exhausted when he came flying back into town with what proved to be a cloud with more rain than he was hoping for and realized that he was much too exhausted to pull it to a stop from the speed he'd been fleeing at.

Sooooo there may be a raincloud careening towards a building and dragging a honey-and-welt-covered pegasus behind it.

"So anyway, I was saying, Fiddle, where'd you…get…so…" Green eyes lift as a shadow rapidly crosses over the little portside town, and widen. Blackbird's mouth drops open, clomping his hooves a few times. "Oh, gosh, oh gosh," he utters, before he abandons his conversation partner and goes racing after before something Bad happens.

…Not that he could do anything about it.

What is it with all of this rain in the winter? Snowfield doesn't care that spring starts in a week, until wrap-up begins there is no place for rain in Horseshoe Harbor! Especially because it melts all the snow!

The tiny pony is here a little earlier than she might normally be, wearing a white hooded cloak because it had been snowing near the Forest when she left. In fact, that snow is exactly the reason she's here at this time of day: the roads might get too difficult to travel if she waits until nightfor for her supply runs as she usually does. A dark shadow overhead draws the little mare's bright blue eyes skyward, a frown upon her lips as she sees the source is an out of control cloud. "Feh," she mumbles. "That's what Saltlick gets for hiring weatherponies, should've just left it to the Forest to decide like before."

(OOC) Blackbird snrk.
(OOC) Snowfield: can you guess how much respect i have for salty
(OOC) Jellybean gestures with his hooves. "Thiiiiiiis much?"
(OOC) Snowfield :| at Jellybean.
(OOC) Jellybean: Thiiiis much?
(OOC) Snowfield will give you a hint: it is zero. Zero respect.

Typhoon-Wave probably should have been more useful in providing said needed clouds. She really should have. Rainclouds? Come on. Let's be honest, she panicked a bit. Convenient time to make herself scarce. Stage fright. Yeah, that's it. That's pretty accurate.

And maaaaybe that wasn't the best idea. 'Cause there goes a cloud, careening as much as a cloud can. And that other weatherpony? She blinked, frowned, scuffed a hoof habitually on the ground, and spread her wings to dart after it. Job time. Just pleeeease don't make it worse. "What in Equestria is going on here?"

As the cloud approaches a sound can be heard. It's Jellybean, saying "Ohgoshohdearohmyohgoshohdearohmy!" as a looped mantra. He peers over the cloud and sees Snowfield and a pony he hasn't met before in the path. He'd really rather not get them drenched, especially on a day like this. He tries to get on top of the cloud to start stamping it out in the hopes of making it lighter or at least making it less wet by the time it gets anywhere, but he discovers too late that his honey-coated hooves are in fact stuck to the cloud. So now we can add 'frantically flailing' to the list of applicable adjectives.

Snowfield deftly moves between Blackbird's legs when the taller pony stumbles around her, shifting her weight left and then darting right with a swirl of her cloak to keep from being tripped over. "It's just a cloud," she says unimpressed. "It'll pop and make things wet. I don't see what the big deal is." Her eyes turn skywards again as she sees another pegasus flying in to render aid. "Well, that'll make it boring," she asides to nobody in particular.

Typhoon-Wave puts on a burst of speed to try and catch up with the cloud, flying alongside it as she tried to figure out where to grab hold. "What're you trying to do, start a windstorm? This wasn't scheduled!" Though wouldn't it be convenient if somepony else accidentally stormed out the town. That'd be… well to be honest, she'd be amused.

She caught hold of one bit of fluff, mumbling muffled words that might have been inappropriate as she tried to pull it away from the buildings it was heading for. "Get off, can't break it with you standin' on it!"

Blackbird huffs at Snowfield. "You make it wet, and then what will happen? Sand Dollar's goods may be ruined, or the building may collapse. You /never know here/." And with that, he's running off to help. Which is to say, he's going to be nervous and try and think of a way to help. And maybe ask some more pegasi to put a hoof in.

Snowfield gives a Blackbird an incredulous look at his suggestion that everything will be ruined if the runaway cumulus isn't stopped. "If the buildings here can't take a cloud running into them, then I don't know what you intend to do in the rainy season." She trots after Blackbird, intent on getting the last word. "Perhaps Sand Dollar should consider making a shop out of something sturdier than a sand castle!"

Jellybean continues to struggle to get his hooves free. "Today's been a bad day," he whines. "There were bees, and then a bear, and then buzzards and now the building's going to be bombarded with a bitter build-up of nearly blizzard-cold barometric badness!" Apparently he gets alliterative when he panics. "And to top it all off there's honey in my mane and it's going to take FOREVER to get it out."

Typhoon-Wave shoots him a /look/. Yeah, that sort of look. Really? Okay. "While I'm wowed by your way with words, your warbling won't weaken this wild woolpack," she retorted. "If we're gonna stop this thing we've got to remove you from it, unless you fancy being flung off to the forest again."

"Well, the last rebuild of the town wasn't too long ago! I don't know—" Blackbird skids to a halt and turns to argue with Snowfield, because he's not /thinking clearly/. "I don't know how much it's been rebuilt and I certainly don't want Sand Dollar to get the flank-end of a stick I could prevent!" Not that…he's preventing it.

"And what do you intend to do to stop it from down here?" Snowfield retorts, slowing her trot as Blackbird skids around to face her. "Unless you've got some sort of amazing flying machine that could get us up to the cloud, I don't see us being anything but spectators to inevitability." She casts another glance skywards. "I doubt even my magic would be any use here, unless you wanted me to turn all of that rain into a great wave of hail. Let the pegasi play at being protectors."

And then the two would-be saviors start alliterating at each other. "…or let them bicker like babies. Bleh."

Staying near to the sides of buildings, where eaves might offer some form of protection against sudden horrifying rainstorms, a tall zebra approaches to find a better view of what's going on. "Where's that cloud going this afternoon? Is the town getting wrecked again so soon?"

Fortunately, Jellybean DOES have something useful to contribute to this situation: blind dumb luck! He can feel his hooves shifting a little bit against the soft-yet-solid sponginess of the cloud and if his guess is right (and he doesn't have the best Cutie Mark ever for being WRONG about these), that means… "Typhoon, grab my hind hooves and pull when I say: one, two, THREE!" And hopefully he'll come unstuck.

Blackbird stamps his hoof again at Snowfield. Petulent child! "I /do/ have a flying device but I left it at home! I'm sure there's some way to help somehow! And standing around arguing about it isn't it!!" Now frustrated, the teacher whirls to gallop after the speeding cloud. It's so close to the building! Not much longer! "Go right! GO RIGHT!" he hollers. So helpful!

Sadaka scampers in from the general direction of the forest, looking a bit shaken and glancing over her shoulder often. She had no clue what had been making those growly sounds, but they had been /far/ too close to her stump for her liking, and had sounded very unhappy. Which had made her rather unhappy. Which had resulted in her high-tailing it to the safety of town as fast as her little hooves could go. Of course, judging from the look of things, 'safety' might be a relative term.

Typhoon-Wave blinks. "What… I… oh, alright, geesh…" she let go of the cloud to grab onto his hooves. "Oh ew you're all sticky!" she complained unhappily, trying not to get smacked in the face by his tail as she gave him a firm pull on three, wings flapping frantically.

Otente looks down at the approaching zebra filly, whose fear might look a little silly. He lifts a hoof to block her path, until the cloud ride's aftermath. "What are you doing, little one? Something's surely made you run."

Snowfield comes to a halt and quirks her head at Blackbird as he speeds off. "Wait… what? You really do have a flying machine? Hey! HEY!" She breaks into a gallop after the taller pony and the runaway raincloud.

Jellybean was correct in his hunch and does indeed come unstuck from the raincloud, sending both himself and Typhoon flying in the opposite direction. He shakes his head, which at this point really only accomplished getting his sticky mane plastered to his face, and starts chasing after the raincloud which has now started spinning due to the sudden jolt. "I'msorryeverypony!" he yells.

Blackbird calls over his shoulder at Snowfield, "It's a whirlygig! That's all!" He looks back to see the cloud spinning rapidly away from the weather ponies, and without thinking twice, he grabs a rope from its pile in a nearby shop, knots it, and swings it, to lasso the cloud!

… Except it falls pitifully short. Like, a few feet in front of him. A lasso pony he is not.

Blackbird stares at the rope and sighs. "If only I had my whirlygig," he mutters.

Sadaka skids to a stop, nearly running face-first into the hoof, and sits panting for a moment, trying to catch her breath. "There's… something in the forest… angry… makin' noises… I didn't wanna stay 'round there, so I, uh… b-but I'm not scared! I just, y'know… d-didn't want it… angrier…"

Typhoon-Wave topples away head over hooves, dropping a good few yards in the air as she tried to regain her composure — and balance, that too. "H-hey!" Oi, there he went again. She shook her head dizzily to clear it and hurried after him.

Otente sits down and peers, then frowns and flattens ears. "Don't you worry, little waif, here in town you'll be quite safe. What were you doing there alone, out in the forest overgrown?" He looks back up to the storm, "I really hope this isn't the norm."

"That's not a word!" Snowfield protests at the mention of 'whirlygig'. Running after the other white pony causes the hood on her cloak to fall off her head, letting her long, dark mane trail behind her. "Oh, now they've sent it spinning, I doubt they'll get control of it back now. Best find an umbrella before it's too late."

Sadaka blinks and follows his gaze up. "Oh… is there going to be a storm?" She frowned; rain was cold. She'd have to find something to hide under, apparently. "I was trying to nap, before it got all loud and growly…"

Jellybean is not one of nature's trick flyers. He's not slow or anything but a sprinter he isn't, and he's exhausted on top of everything else so by the time he gets to the cloud it's already pretty close to impact. He grabs on and… is spun in circles by the rapidly-spinning cumulomonstrosity and flung off into the distance, coming to a stop inbetween the two zebra.

Blackbird lets out an exasperated noise as he drops the rope. "It is a word! It's a device I invented! By kinetic propulsion, you can— Nevermind, you'll understand when you're older. /Horseapples/." He watches the pegasus spin off into the distance, and then, mustering his resolve, he gallops after the cloud. Very stupid pony. He has no way of stopping that thing.

Otente manages not to jump, and only cringes at the thump. "I suppose that cloud might not bring rain, but it seems it's bringing lots of pain. Hey, pegasus, are you okay? The cards said nothing of broken bones today." He glances at Sadaka small, "Why were you napping there at all?"

What? What!? Snowfield will horseapples /you/, you dumb stallion! With a 'harumph' of indignation she takes off after Blackbird once more, though this time with far darker reasons than just getting the last word.

Typhoon-Wave rolls her eyes a bit as the other Pegasus is flung away; time to nip this in the bud. She dove down beneath the cloud, catching up with it and spinning to give it a hard kick up into the air, hopefully high enough to overshoot the building. "Get up there, you… and quit with the spinning! No tornadoes!" Wouldn't /that/ just be lovely. She hurried up after it, trying to fly circles opposite its spinning in the hopes of slowing it up enough to do something productive with.

Sadaka jumps and squeaks at the Pegasus' sudden… arrival, scrambling out of the way. "Woah! Hey, are… are you okay, mister?" she blinked at him, tilting her head uneasily.

Jellybean sits up and shakes his head muzzily: he's now wet, bruised and covered in welts, honey and dirt. "I don't know about broken bones but my head is killing me," he moans. He spins around so he can see the raincloud: if he had fingernails he'd be biting them.

Blackbird ignores Snowfield entirely, unaware that he's pursuing her, and instead skids into Sand Dollar's Pragmatic Prosthetics. Maybe he has something to stop them! But no, he mostly has peg legs. And Sand Dollar is nowhere to be found even. "Horseapples horseapples horseapples," he swears, racing around through the store. No help! Anywhere!

Otente says "Why do you smell so sweet? You shouldn't roll in what you eat." He looks up to the sky, and follows the cloud with watchful eye. "Each time I come here is so strange. The clouds we watch, your kind arrange. I hope those ponies meet success, or this will be an /awful/ mess…"

Snowfield dashes into Sand Dollar's shop a few seconds behind Blackbird and watches him dart around the store, righteous fury upon her face as she is further miffed by the fact that he is ignoring her after sleighting her in such a fashion. "Hey!" she shouts as she runs at him should he pause to search, spinning around and bucking him in the shins with as much strength as her little legs can muster. Maybe she'll even trip him up so he crashes into the stairs that lead up to the second floor storage.

Typhoon-Wave pauses, panting and glancing back at the cloud, which at least seemed to have slowed its spinning somewhat. She grabbed onto it as best she could, trying to lug it away from the building enough to safely dump the rain in a less concentrated fashion.

Blackbird yelps and dances around as the little pony kicks him in the shins. "Ow! Ow! H-heeeyyy!!" That last syllable is a little dragged out since he does indeed fall into the stairs. "What the hay, little lady! Didn't anyone ever teach you manners?" he shouts, affronted. "Look, I'll deal with you later. This is an emergency! Go find a grown-up!" And like that, he manages to get his hooves under him, to go charging up the stairs. "Sand Dollar? Sand Dollarrrr!"

Sadaka sits back on her haunches, blinking. "…Okay, what's going on? Why's everyone so worried about the storm?" she asked after a moment, tilting her head.

Jellybean wobbles unsteadily on his hooves. "There was a swarm of bees," he says to Otente, "and they did what they please. And what they pleased in this case was to sting me in flank and face." He shakes his head for a moment and adds, "I think I'm gonna go help clean up." before flying towards the cloud. Poor thing looks worn out.

"I am a grown-up, you daft foal!" Snowfield snaps back at Blackbird, a little more inclined to talk now that she's given him a swift kick. "Didn't anyone tell you not to insult your elders?" She's not actually sure whether Blackbird is younger than her or not but does not actually care either.

She runs up the stairs as well, more out of instinct than anything else. There's just something about action that makes a pony, no matter how anti-social, follow along with the crowd.

Of course, being on the second floor means being directly in the path of large, spinning, honey-laden cloud, which she can see rapidly approaching through a convenient open window. "Oh, that's just /brilliant/," she says with a roll of her eyes. Not even bothering to look at the stallion looking around for the missing proprietor, she asks him, "Any bright ideas now, Blackbird?"

Grabbing the cloud? Not the best idea. All it did was spin her around and make her dizzy. Typhoon gave herself a hard shake, trying to reorient herself; with a frustrated growl she hurried to catch back up with it. At this rate, she didn't have time to 'stop' it, but maybe she could dump enough rain out to make it less problematic.

"What?" Blackbird blinks rapidly back at the little pony, and skids into the nearest room, where the giant window overlooks the giant cloud coming to dump a giant rain storm on the building. "Uhh—! Yes!" And like the /brilliant tactician/ he is, he paces back and forth in a tight track before bending down to apparently ready himself for leaping onto the cloud. Which will work out so well for the earth pony.

Snowfield glances behind her as she hears the clopping of Blackbird's hooves on the wood right behind her and sees him preparing to do something exceedingly stupid. "No!" she shouts, trotting over to him and giving him a firm headbutt in the side, which is extra discouraging because she is a unicorn and her head is naturally pointy. "That is /not/ a good idea and you are /not/ a clever pony! Honestly, if you're going to have a bad idea at least have it be /reasonably/ bad."

Her gaze drawn back towards the window, only one solution really comes to mind as the moment impact draws nigh. "Like freezing it into ice. THAT'S a bad idea that might actually WORK." Horn glowing a brilliant cerulean the color of her eyes, Snowfield charges at the window herself and tries to focus on the water in the cloud, freezing each potential raindrop while at the same time trying to keep them separate to prevent great hailstones from forming. She grunts and strains with the effort, but considering there's mere seconds to do the work… well, it's probably not going to do anything to actually /stop/ the cloud. Just make it, y'know, less destructive. If it works. Maybe.

Typhoon-Wave hurriedly flies alongside the cloud, spinning in the air and rearing to give it a hard kick with her hind legs, the intent being to knock enough of the rain out of it to shrink it considerably. Such things were a particular skill of hers; when she kicked precipitation from a cloud, she kicked it out good.

And now we have a moment where Unicorn magic and Pegasus know-how are combining in what is perhaps a less than synergistic fashion: what was at the moment a cloud full of rain contracts at exactly the wrong moment and is instead a cloud full of snow, and snow covered in liberal quantities of honey at that. An explosion of coldness and whititude are the immediate result. The nearby houses are sprayed with it, unfortunate ponies in the area are probably half-buried and Jellybean gives up midflight and just sort of plops into a snowbank. "Ouchie."

Blackbird flops over on his butt after Snowfield bumps him, blinking a few times. "Well! I was kind of running out of ideas! You know?" He rubs a hoof on his forehead as he watches the miniature pony freeze the cloud's payload before Typhoon kicks it into oblivion. A spray of snow explodes inside, over Snowfield and Blackbird, but at least it misses the important stuff. The teacher blinks, and pulls to his hooves, shaking his coat out. "Well, you saved the day. Err….sorry for, uh. Assuming."

Typhoon-Wave gives a faint yelp as she is splattered with honey and snowflakes; not at all what she'd been expecting. She hovered for a moment, stunned and blinking, before looking around slowly, trying to assess the damage. "I didn't do that. That was not a snowcloud two seconds ago," she announced to nopony in particular.

Snowfield faces her fate with no regrets, simply closing her eyes and allowing the wall of white to engulf her.

…say, this is awfully heavy for snow. And… sticky? "Oh, ew, why is it full of honey?" the mare complains. "And it's in my /mane/, eugh!" An expression of dismay plays across Snowfield's face as she looks at her stained cloak and forehooves.

She bites her lip for a moment, trying to figure out whether she can fight through the disgust of being honey-covered to say something relevant to Blackbird. Eventually she manages to say, "You know what they say about assuming. You just make a donkey out of yourself." A brief pause. "I never understood that saying. It's kind of racist when you think about it."

Blackbird, also dripping in snow and honey, finds that shaking off actually didn't do much. "I…don't know, honestly. I wonder if it's something to do with donkey culture?" Blinking outside, he looks to Typhoon. "You okay out there?"

Typhoon-Wave is currently in the process of looking bleakly back at her honey-coated wings, flapping awkwardly as she tries to flick some of it off. "…Ew." She glances up at Blackbird, blinking. "Oh, uh… yeah. I guess. How's the, uh… store?"

Jellybean pulls himself out of the sudden snowbank. His poor, poor mane. "Is everypony okay? I'm sorry about all this!"

Snowfield sticks her head back out the window, and sees a familiar pony apologizing from down below. Her lip curls unhappily.